Wood Center Book Project

Share your memories of the Wood Center

A view of the Wood Center in 1973 from the Rasmuson Library. Image courtesy of Alaska and Polar Regions Collections, Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks.

This view is the back entrance of the Wood Center in 1973. Image courtesy of Alaska and Polar Regions Collections, Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks.

A view of the information center at Wood Center in 1973. According to the sign posted on the wall, Daily News Miner, Anchorage Daily News, and Anchorage Times all sold for 15 cents, and the Wall Street Journal sold for 40 cents. Image courtesy of Alaska and Polar Regions Collections, Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Wood Center serves as the student union building on the Fairbanks campus.

Jamie Hazlette plays a round of bowling in the Wood Center Polar Alley.

Mike Kennedy, left, Elizabeth Tsigonis and Lisa Fidino take time to study near the Wood Center food court.

Students congregate in the multi-level lounge in the Wood Center.

Dancers perform in front of Wood Center during SpringFest on the Fairbanks campus.

Yuzhun Evanoff, left, and Dawson Arthur show off their quidditch skills during the Student Club and Organization Fair in Wood Center.

Engineering students Joe Hunner and Tachit Chairat study with Kara La Rue in the lounge at Wood Center.

UAF students, staff, faculty, alumni and community members follow the steps from a caller with live music during a contra dance in the Wood Center ballroom.

Kelly Ryan serves up a cold beer in UAF's Wood Center Pub

Flags in Wood Center represent the countries of international students attending UAF.

The Wood Center under construction as part of its 2013-2014 expansion.

An artist's rendering of the Wood Center's exterior after the expansion.

An artist's rendering of the Wood Center's interior after the expansion.

Regent Jo Heckman

Calling all students, alumni, staff and faculty!

If you were on UAF's Fairbanks campus in the early '70s you probably heard the buzz about a new student union building. Were you one of those eagerly awaiting its grand opening?

Wood Center opened in 1972, a then modern facility devoted to students and student activities. The center included a bowling alley, lounges, food court, meeting rooms, student government and newspaper offices, and, last but not least, a drinking establishment called the Pub!

If you frequented Wood Center during your college years at UAF, now's the time to relive those memories as we go on a journey to remember it over the decades. Whether it was about the stairway to nowhere, the food court, the bowling alley, the Pub or about your time spent at Wood Center, please share them with us.

Regent Jo Heckman, class of '79 and '85, is collecting Wood Center memories and putting them in a book to be published for the centennial celebrations.

As we approach UAF's centennial, and we see the old Wood Center being transformed to meet the needs of today's student population, we wanted to capture our collective memories from 1970 to present in a fun, easy-to-read format. So send your memories, pictures and any other facts you may have to be included in this book. Thank you!